Thursday, December 18, 2008

The Borg

Dozens of Israeli policemen were seriously injured today during a training exercise.

The exercise was a simulation of a riot situation where the police were sent in to regain calm.

Some policemen apparently were unable to differentiate between the real world where they are told to savagely beat protesters and a training exercise against their fellow policemen where they are not supposed to hurt anybody.

Anyway, dozens of policemen found themselves on the receiving end of typical police violence commonly reserved just for settlers.

Dozens of policemen (possibly as high as 54) are being treated for concussions and possibly broken bones after their fellow overenthusiastic policemen confused their training partners with settlers and beat them mercilessly. (source, JPost published after Muqata's and JoeSettler's exclusive update)

Also during the exercise another policeman fell asleep at the wheel while driving, injuring over 30 other policemen.

28 comments:

I always find it interesting that a point of commonality between right-wing occupants of unauthorized settlements and Palestinians has been that the Israeli security forces are unnecessarily brutal when attempting to disperse a protest/crowd or clear a home. Yet at the same time - who can forget that these same Jews were the ones to shout the loudest "Let the IDF win" and frequently accussed the security forces of being "too soft" on the Palestinians.

Do you really think these police reserve this kind of behavior for "settlers" only? In October 2000 police ended up shooting dead 13 Israeli-Arabs, all of them unarmed - during the riots/protests - I simply don't believe that the same would have applied to Jews. In fact, I think if any of these wayward "hilltop youth" that were perpetuating violence and who youve written about were Palestinians - I think theyd be 6 feet under by now.

Do you honestly believe that: A) the security forces treat the settlers worse than they do Palestinians or any others B) That the police should be less violent all around or C) That the police should be less violent towards settlers and more violent towards Palestinians for the same behaviors?

Doubt it. Those of my family who are police officers constantly spend their time serving people like you - who then sneer at them, because they obey the orders they are given.

It's all too easy - and oh so unpleasant - to laugh. It's when my cousin spends her non-existent overtime comforting a woman beaten senseless by her husband that I think - 'oh wait. I could be doing something more constructive, like writing a blog which takes cheap shots at people who don't do what I do'.

SM: Doubt it. Those of my family who are police officers constantly spend their time serving people like you - who then sneer at them, because they obey the orders they are given.

This is not the UK, my Lord. Here in Israel, police officers spend their time commiting acts of senseless brutality against innocent people.

Are your relatives Israeli police officers? If not, then one would have no reason to suppose that they behave in this way as well. Their case would bear no relevance to the criminal thugs in the Israel police who attack children and threaten to rape them. And if they are members of the Israel police, then they are part of a violent, criminal organization, whether they participate directly in the violence or not.

In either case, your repulsive defense of these twisted criminals is merely a display of your arrogance and your ignorance.

Only morons label whole organisations. Only right-wing nut jobs label the Israeli police as you have done.

How on earth Israel will ever become a decent society when people like you pose as responsible and concerned citizens, whilst preaching violence and hate against others who give of their time to serve the state defeats me. You are a Jew who attacks other Jews without knowing a thing about them, and when they have done nothing wrong. You extend your hatred to people with young children, who put themselves on the line every day. Shame on you.

One of my cousins disarms bombs. He has 4 young kids. He saves lives pretty well every day. He has scars from his toes to his pelvis because of injuries received on duty. And he - to you - is a 'twisted criminal'. You revolting ingrate.

Still, at least you have a nice place here to play with all your little friends. It's good that you have found a home where you feel comfortable - amongst others who moan much and do nothing.

I am hardly surprised that you would rise to the defense of a group of people who committed the detestable actions documented here and elsewhere, and who injured themselves in the midst of an exercise practicing to commit even more of the same sort of brutality.

Not surprisingly, that's another trait you share with the stormtroopers of the Israel Police whom you so admire.

Like the time I watched a police officer smash a helpless 13-year-old girl's face, as she screamed in terror, until her face was drenched in blood. He didn't apologize.

Or the time I approached a police officer to present a verbal complaint about the violent behavior of another officer. He responded by sneering at me, and then smashing in my kneecaps with his wooden truncheon. He didn't apologize either.

Or the time my pregnant wife approached a police officer and asked him to identify himself. He responded by brutally shoving her backwards over a a trash bin behind her. He also didn't apologize.

Or the time a friend of mine made a similar request of another police officer. He responded by clamping my friend's hand onto an iron fence, and then bending each of his fingers backward, breaking them with loud snaps of his bones. That officer didn't apologize either.

And every time I've watched large groups of Israeli police at peaceful anti-government demonstrations, just prior to engaging in illegal, horribly brutal behavior against women, frail elderly people, children, and even babies -- they first all remove their ID nametags from their uniforms simultaneously, en masse. Even though this is a blatant violation of the law, they've never apologized for it, either.

And just as these many officers -- who are rewarded for this behavior with promotions -- never apologize, neither does the Israel Police as an organization.

I work in the mishmar ezrachi, and I heard the macho, tough-guy officer "teaching" us (all far smarter than he) about "professionalism". I stood up and told him that I see no place for the Israeli Police to talk about professionalism after the video-documented police brutality in Amona. His response was, "wait until you stand for a few hours with settlers insulting you and telling you you are a nazi." As if that justifies anything.

The problem is that the system -- the force and the courts, never go after these animals -- they let them continue being police and getting promoted.

SM is unable to wrap his head around the fact that illegal police force is illegal, even if it is against settlers, whom he obviously hates with such a passion.

Police forces the world over are mirrors - they behave to groups of people as those groups behave to them.

The stretch from a few - alleged - incidents to the sort of language used here demonstrates fairly clearly where the truth lies. The incidents are probably lies because the Israeli legal system provides for claims in respect of of such things and a quick search plus a few phone calls reveals none at all. So, in addition to being 'brutally assaulted', these poor people are silent about it - except in places like this where no one questions anything that suits what they want to hear.

This is, in short, a jerk circle. And we know who sits in those. Enjoy yourselves gentlemen. Israel will find its peace without you.

Police forces the world over are mirrors - they behave to groups of people as those groups behave to them.

LOL. Is this a serious comment? Is this a justification for police brutality? I am just unclear on where you are going with this, SM.

These incidents are probably lies

You are approaching the incidents exactly as the police review board and courts in Israel do. When the "settlers" are prima facie evil and liars, there is no need to bother ourselves with the distraction of due process and impartial justice, right?

Just remember this: human rights, protection from police brutality, and the laws that surround these issues are not there to protect the rights and safety of people that the police or government agree with. They are there, rather, to protect the people who the government and police don't agree with, and would otherwise be inclined to mistreat.

Thank you for enunciating so clearly exactly what you are -- a sadistic, inhuman piece of filth -- and far more succinctly than I could have managed.

And now that you've let us know how you get your jollies, I'd suggest you go back and look at some of the videos in the link I gave you earlier, like the scene at the beginning of this one: You can watch and hear a group of young settlers moan while they're being beaten on their heads repeatedly by a helmeted police officer using a truncheon, as they sit passively and offer no resistance. Play it over a few times for yourself -- it should definitely give you much cause for rejoicing.

Oh, and btw -- if by "settlers", you mean Jews who reside in Judea and Samaria, then I should mention that I'm actually not a "settler". I'm sure that's not important though -- I have little doubt that upon hearing the moaning elicited from my wife and myself by the police during the incidents I described above, you would still rejoice just as much.

SM: Police forces the world over are mirrors - they behave to groups of people as those groups behave to them.

Thanks for that eye-opening insight. I had never before realized that Martin Luther King and the rest of the civil rights protestors in Alabama had behaved with such vicious brutality against the local state police. Or that the non-violent student pro-democracy protestors in Tianenman Square in Beijing had first massacred thousands of police before they themselves were massacred.

SM: The incidents are probably lies...

Of course; I'm just lying, as are the thousands of other victims of Israeli police brutality. I shouldn't have expected any less than that from you, my Lord. No doubt this is also the way you deal with information presented to you in court that fails to conform to your preconceived biases.

SM: ...because the Israeli legal system provides for claims in respect of of such things and a quick search plus a few phone calls reveals none at all.

Yes, I can see that you must have searched very hard. I just now did a single search on Google, which immediately returned the following news articles (among many more), all about brutality claims against the Israel Police -- some brought by MK's who were beaten -- as well as the resulting trials of police officers, and Knesset investigations of the same:

Tell me, my Lord, do you put also in this much effort to find the truth when dealing cases that come before you in court?

SM: So, in addition to being 'brutally assaulted', these poor people are silent about it...

Funny, all the people in the news articles above who sued the police didn't seem very silent to me.

But for someone who studiously keeps his head buried in the sand so as not to expose himself to anything that would conflict with his prefabricated beliefs, the whole world must seem silent.

No matter, though. Surely, all these news stories must be lies also, right? (Even the ones from the leftist Haaretz.)

You know, at first I got very indignant, having suffered excruciatingly painful physical abuse at the hands of the police, and then getting told by a hateful, ignorant pompous ass (yourself) that it never even happened. But then, I reminded myself that I don't have it so bad -- after all, I recovered from my injuries. Others -- like Akiva Vitkin, who had his face literally torn open by officer Eran Naim while other officers sat on Vitkin to keep him motionless, or the people who suffered brain damage from monstrous beatings in Amona -- have permanent injuries that will be with them for the rest of their lives. I wonder if you would have the gall to tell even these unfortunate victims to their faces that they are liars, and that nothing ever happened to them. I imagine you would...

SM: ...except in places like this where no one questions anything that suits what they want to hear.

At least that would be one step above you, my Lord, who rejects anything that doesn't suit what he wants to hear.

No doubt. Just ask the men, women, and children of Sderot and Ashkelon, who are already basking in the "peace" that Israel has found by abandoning the Gaza Strip to Hamas. They're living in mortal fear and abject terror, 24/7. That should certainly give you something to "rejoice" about: I'm not sure whether they qualify as full-fledged "settlers" in your eyes (some leftists are already calling for Israel to "disengage" from Sderot), but every single time Kassam missles detonate around them, there's enough moaning going on there to give you an orgasm.

For some valuable insight into how SM's comment above illustrates the classic excuses made by people who don't want to admit the truth, see this insightful post on DovBear listing the classic, lame excuses made by such people. And notice who wrote the list.